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The Sound of a Cyber Bubble Popping

A man hands a balloon to a woman as he decorates Fillmore Street on Valentine's Day in San Francisco. - Photograph by Justin Sullivan—Getty Images

A man hands a balloon to a woman as he decorates Fillmore Street on Valentine's Day in San Francisco.Photograph by Justin Sullivan—Getty Images

Robert Hackett

February 3rd, 2018

The cryptocurrency market is in a meltdown. Bitcoin prices are down nearly 60% from their December highs, and major banks are cutting off credit card access to crypto exchanges—no surprise in the wake of a mania that saw everyone and their dog sharing hot crypto tips.

Meanwhile, the cyber-security industry is experiencing its own bubble bursting, albeit in much less dramatic fashion. As Reuters reported last month, investors are at last acknowledging the obvious: There are too many VC-bloated start-ups chasing too few clients, while unicorns are morphing into zombies struggling to find an IPO or other exit.

This situation may explain a recent flurry of press releases from cyber firms like Tenable, Cylance and Duo. The releases tout revenue growth and appear intended to assure anyone who will listen that “hey, we’re surviving the cyber shake-out just fine thank you very much.”

More from FORTUNE

It’s hard to say for now which firms will be left standing at the end of 2018 but, for now, it’s clear the peak of the cyber-boom, when VCs would shower money on any company with blinky lights, is over. The investor uncertainty, though, is just one part of the cyber story. There’s also the more important question of whether all these companies have helped harden the country against hacking, and the answer appears to be yes.

Based on recent conversations with ordinary executives, I’ve found cyber-literary has shot up. While hackers are still getting through (they always will), managers and general counsels are finally attuned to the threat and doing something about it.

This change is also trickling down to more humble enterprises. I met a company this week called CyberSight, which offers free and low-cost ransomware protection to the likes of small businesses and county governments, and many of them are actually implementing it. This is a welcome change from a year ago when too many companies blew off cyber defense as an exotic affair they didn’t need.

So let’s celebrate cyber victories where we can find them. Finally, returning to crypto, don’t forget it’s tax time—if you bought or sold, here’s a plain English Q&A to get you through. Have a great weekend.

THREATS

Bye-bye little bots: Twitter users are losing tens of thousands of followers in the wake of a searing report about a “follower factory” that let people inflate their social media popularity with the help of bots, many of which were crafted by means of identity theft. A Twitter board member was among those who lost followers in the purge.

Apple and the FBI, it’s complicated: In the wake of a 2016 terrorist attack, media outlets (including Fortune) reported on bad blood between Apple and law enforcement over the iPhone maker’s encryption polices. Today, the two sides still don’t see eye-to-eye but are in many ways more friendly than you think.

Looming specter of Spectre: Sure enough, those scary Spectre and Meltdown viruses may be coming to a chip near you. Researchers have already found 130 malware samples that appear to have been built in order to exploit the worldwide chip vulnerabilities disclosed in January.

Netflix and Phish: When you have 118 million subscribers, many of them addicted to binge-watching, your service will be a popular target for scammers. A fake Netflix subscription email is making the rounds (again), threatening to cancel Netflix customers’ accounts if they don’t supply their credit card number. One guess what happens if you click.

Hey Hawaii, good call on canning that button pusher who kept confusing drills with real life.

ACCESS GRANTED

The robbery caper began in a Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant in Times Square, where Meza met his victim, who had earlier disclosed he was an early investor in Ethereum. The cryptocurrency was once worth pennies but last year soared to over $1,000.

— If you’re going to rob someone at gunpoint for their crypto-currency, for heaven’s sake, don’t transfer the funds to a popular exchange in your own name. Fortune obtained exclusive details about a crazy crypto heist in New York.

ONE MORE THING

Obligatory SuperBowl tidbit: Jeopardy host Alex Trebek chided his contestants over their complete and utter ignorance of football, a topic that regularly pops up in the weeks before the gig game. The show then trolled the players with a tweet, saying “Our contestants answered as many clues in this category as the @Browns had wins this season.”